Theodore Roosevelt bio focuses on N.Y. hometown

FICTION

"Hunted" by Karen Robards. 'Twas the night before Christmas ... and dozens of rich, influential hostages are trapped inside a sprawling lakefront mansion in New Orleans. The perp? Detective Reed Ware, model cop turned outlaw. After receiving a panicked call from Hollis "Holly" Bayard, a teenage street tough with a penchant for amateur sleuthing who stumbles upon the scene of a drug-deal-turned-murder, Ware finds his life and the life of his friends in danger. The crime Holly witnessed could be the biggest police cover-up this side of New Orleans, and no one's talking. Driven to desperate measures to uncover the truth, Ware stages a coup at a Christmas party for the New Orleans elite, including the mayor, the council chairman, the sheriff and the superintendent of police, who just happens to be hostage negotiator Caroline Wallace's estranged father. Cool, calm and controlled. That's Caroline's reputation. When she's brought in to talk Ware off the proverbial ledge, she realizes no amount of false promises is going to placate this man.

"Innocence" by Dean Koontz. He lives in solitude beneath the city, an exile from society, which will destroy him if he is ever seen. She dwells in seclusion, a fugitive from enemies who will do her harm if she is ever found. But the bond between them runs deeper than the tragedies that have scarred their lives. Something more than chance - and nothing less than destiny - has brought them together in a world whose hour of reckoning is fast approaching.

"Once Upon a Lie" by Maggie Barbieri. Maeve Conlon's life is coming apart at the seams. Her bakery is barely making ends meet, and one of her daughters spends as much time grounded as the other does studying. Her ex-husband has a new wife, a new baby, and a look of pity for Maeve that's absolutely infuriating. Her father insists he's still independent, but he's slowly and obviously succumbing to Alzheimer's. And now, her cousin Sean Donovan has been found dead, shot through the head. There was never much love lost between Maeve and Sean, and she's not exactly devastated by his death, but suddenly the police are poking around asking the family questions. It's just one more hassle Maeve doesn't have time for, until she realizes that her father, whose memory and judgment are unreliable at best, is a suspect in the murder.

NONFICTION

"Heir to the Empire City: New York and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edward P. Kohn. Theodore Roosevelt is best remembered as America's prototypical "cowboy" president- a Rough Rider who derived his political wisdom from a youth spent in the untamed American West. But while the great outdoors certainly shaped Roosevelt's identity, historian Edward P. Kohn argues that it was his hometown of New York that made him the progressive president we celebrate today. During his early political career, Roosevelt took on local Republican factions and Tammany Hall Democrats alike, proving his commitment to reform at all costs. He fought the city's rampant corruption, and helped guide New York through the perils of rabid urbanization and the challenges of accommodating an influx of immigrants - experiences that would serve him well as president of the United States.